HAWAII FIVE-0 1.23 ‘Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau’

Danno falls victim to Sarin poisoning with Wo Fat and Sang Min on the loose.

May 12th, 2011Hilary Rothing

Episode Title: Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau"

Writer: David Wolkove

Director: Steve Boyum

Story:

McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) leads a SWAT team in a raid on a house Wo Fat is hiding out in. As they attempt to enter the house, they're greeted by an explosion at the front door. Inside he finds Wo Fat's former associate, Sang Min (Will Yun Lee). He makes a run for it and Danno (Scot Caan) follows him into a neighboring house. However, Danno discovers a dead man on the floor and when he goes to investigate, becomes weakened by some sort of chemical agent coming out of a milk cartoon.

After assisting Danny, the team has him taken to the hospital. CIA analyst, Jenna Kaye (Larisa Oleynik), who's assisting McGarrett with the Wo Fat case, suggests Danny was exposed to a biological agent.

While Danny is in the ER, Kaye tells McGarrett it was most likely Sarin. The doctors act accordingly and manage to stabilize Danny.

Meanwhile, Sang Min calls McGarrett offering to make a deal in exchange for Wo Fat. McGarrett hangs up on him and picks up Danny's daughter, Grace (Teilor Grubbs). He takes her to the hospital to visit her father.

The team learns that the house is owned by a Jeff Fallon and his wife Sheila, who are currently out of town. The dead man inside is a mentally ill homeless man. The Fallons do not know him but they do tell 5-0 about their recently fired caretaker, who stole money from them. When 5-0 takes the man in, he reveals that he told the homeless man, a friend from a clinic he takes his sick son to, about a key hidden in a rock outside the house, so that he could crash there.

Back at HQ, Chin (Daniel Dae Kim) gets a call from IA about the money he turned in. Kono (Grace Park) reprimands him for covering for his uncle and suggests the serial numbers on the money won't match up. However, he assures her the file with the numbers went missing years ago.

Prints on the key lead McGarrett and Kaye to Elliot Connor (James Remar), the brother-in-law of Jeff Fallon. After Kaye calls him on lying about using the house, he admits he went there months ago with his secretary, whom he is having an affair with. Fallon urged him to break it off but he's yet to end it.

Kaye learns from a CIA contact that the Sarin is coming from a Russian terrorist. Kono manages to track him down through a credit card. Chin and McGarrett engage in a high-speed chase with the terrorist who ends up crashing his car into a van. However, he immediately dies from the leaking canister of Sarin he had on him. Inside the trunk of his car they find a large quantity of canisters.

Back at 5-0, the IA chairman returns the money to Chin, aware that it is not the same cash his uncle stole. Chin insists the serial numbers went missing but the chairman says it was all a rouse to get Chin to spend the money. Fortunately, he won't be prosecuted but his uncle will.

After discovering that Fallon's company manufactures the canisters, McGarrett and Kaye go to arrest Connor, who had received several phone calls from the Russian terrorist. He was out of town, however, when the calls came in. The two piece together that it was his secretary who had the milk poisoned with Sarin, in hopes of getting Jeff Fallon out of the picture so she and Connor could be together, with him running the company.

Danno is released from the hospital, after spending some quality time with his ex-wife Rachel, who paid him a visit. At HQ, McGarrett receives another envelope, this time with a medal. As he and Danno greet each other with a hug, Sang Min walks in. The two pull their guns but he's unarmed and asking for protection from Wo Fat, who once Sang Min is dead, will be gunning for McGarrett.

Breakdown:

The penultimate episode of this first season of "Hawaii Five-0" began with a police raid and ended with a gangster marked for death walking into 5-0 HQ. Sandwiched in between we got see Kono smack a guy with a garbage can lid, Kay use what she learned on this week's "Lie to Me" on James Remar and McGarrett and Chin Ho in a high speed chase with a Russian terrorist. Not sure it gets any better that.

As the season comes to a close, the 5-0 team kicked up the pace, barely stopping to catch their own breath, except for Danno, was out of commission. And the quirky Jenna Kaye was back on the scene, assisting McG in the investigation and bringing another level of intelligence to the team, literally as a former CIA analyst.

I'm liking her addition to the 5-0 team. While McGarrett is calm and cool, Kaye's a bit of a rambler, especially when she's on to something, like Elliot Connor's lie about staying at the house. She's fun to watch, especially when paired with McGarrett. And though they haven't really gone there yet, I wouldn't mind if these two hook-up. She may not be his type (the ends to go for modelesque military types) they'd make a good match.

On that note, it looks like Danno and Rachel are finally reconnecting. Meanwhile, Chin Ho's family matters have gotten more complicated, with IA on to his plan to cover for his uncle. Will he take anymore extreme measures to protect him? I have a feeling he'll make his next move in the season finale.

And the build-up to season ender as "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau," which means "Until the End is Near" was startling. Sang Min waltzing into 5-0 looking for protection from Wo Fat, just as Danno and McGarrett share a bromance embrace? Awesome.

The season finale should pull out all the stops, which means plenty of explosions and McGarrett in ninja mode on the hunt for Wo Fat. Once he's apprehended, the only thing the 5-0 team will have to worry about is a second season.